Why can't Apple just recreate the miracle with a new product--the iPad Mini, for example, or a fantastic new TV?

Because the iPhone was a nearly perfect business at a nearly perfect time for Apple. And those don't come along very often.

Google's search business is and was a magic money machine. People are doing billions of searches, and Google very simply places a few discreet ads at the top and side of the search results. The ads aren't intrusive, and are often very helpful. It's an incredible business.

For Apple, the iPhone has been a magic money machine. Thanks to carrier subsidies in most developed countries, consumers pay an affordable $200 for the phone when they sign up for a two-year contract. Apple, however, collects $650, with carriers covering the other $450. This is perfect for Apple. It gets mass-market pricing and premium pricing. Plus, its customers come back every two years to get a new phone. And, thanks to Apple's manufacturing efficiency, the company's profit margin on the phone sales is extraordinary.

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This magic money machine led to Apple's sales exploding from $37.5 billion in 2008 to $156.5 billion in 2012. That insane sales growth led to Apple's insane stock growth.

But, Apple's money machine has largely run through its opportunity.

In the last couple of years, as the explosive growth in the smartphone market has shifted to lower-priced phones in emerging markets, Apple's iPhone has been smoked by Android in market share. Globally Android has 75% of the market, according to Gartner. In the U.S., Apple has about 50% of the market, according to Kantar.

Apple has produced record profits and sales even with a small amount of market share, but that's only going to get harder in the future.

The smartphone market is still a huge opportunity, but for Apple, there are limitations. The next phase of growth is coming from older, poorer people around the world. It's unclear if those people are willing to buy expensive iPhones. The carrier subsidy model isn't as popular elsewhere in the world.

If Apple does want to address the low-end of the market with a cheaper iPhone, it presents its own set of problems. It could make a $200 phone, but Apple's sales wouldn't necessarily skyrocket since a cheaper phone would bring in less revenue and less profit. It could also cannibalize sales of the high-end iPhone.

In short, a cheaper iPhone brings market share, but at a cost to Apple's revenue and profits.

Speaking of the iPad, it's important to note the difference between the iPad business and the iPhone business. The iPad is not a magic money machine. It's just another PC. No carriers are subsidizing the iPad. So its profit growth will pale in comparison to the profit growth of the iPhone. And an iPad, because its $600, is less likely to be upgraded every other year.

CEO Tim Cook needs to pull a Steve Jobs and invent that next product to keep investors happy. But the catch is that there is probably no other product as perfectly profitable as the iPhone.

TVs are replaced every eight years, which is quite different than Apple's iPhone, iPad, and Mac lines. Gene Munster estimates Apple could capture 5-10% of the TV market in year one, which would add 4-8% to the company's revenue. Over time it could kick in more, but a TV will never be as lucrative as an iPhone.

One thing Apple investors are waking up to, in other words, is that the iPhone's amazing run is winding down. And that there may never be another iPhone.

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Yet the iPad is growing *faster* than the iPhone. While profit margins aren't quite as high as the iPhone, they are still great, and there is a ton of room for future growth.

Also, concerning an Apple TV. Everyone thought that the cell phone market was an over-saturated, low margin commodity market until Apple entered. Is it impossible to think that Apple could disrupt the TV market in a similar way? Cable companies are enormously profitable, but not very innovative. That's what we call low hanging fruit.

Apple is leading the way on the entire consumer electronics front right now, and there's much more to come. Investors are silly or perhaps this is all a ploy by large firms to drive down the price of AAPL so they can ride it up again next year.